Fianna Fáil Party Leader Micheál Martin has nominated Waterford TD Mary Butler to the position of Chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Deputy Butler is expected to take up the role in the coming days.
“It’s a great honour to be nominated to the position of Chairperson for this important committee. The Oireachtas Committees are going to be central in the process of holding Government to account, developing policy and passing legislation to an extent that we have not seen before. It’s going to be a tough job but I’m up for the challenge,” said Deputy Butler.
“Tackling the high rate of unemployment will be a key goal for the committee. We need to determine the best way forward for getting people back to work and addressing long term unemployment. We often hear of new jobs being created within multinationals in the tech sector, which of course is welcome. However the key challenge for us is to stimulate employment in other sectors of the economy.
“I’m also particularly concerned by the variations in the rates of regional unemployment. The South East for example has the highest rate of unemployment with 12.5% currently looking for work, compared to 7.8% nationally. What’s worse is the fact that unemployment in the South East actually increased by 0.6% in the first quarter of this year as compared to decreases elsewhere.
“I want to work with the other members of the committee to devise new policies to help attract investment into the South East to ensure the true potential of the area is realised,” said Deputy Butler.
